April 9, 2015

sexual offending and heritability

In the wake of many high profile stories of sex offences in the news, there has been much speculation and debate around what factors contribute to the likelihood of individuals committing sexual crimes. Previously, much of the research in this area has focused on environmental factors such as deprived childhoods and alcohol use, rather than possible genetic influences.

In a large population study using data from Sweden, researchers from the University of Oxford and the Karolinska Institutet have investigated the genetic impact on the risk of sexual offending by looking at the close male relatives of convicted sexual offenders.

The authors came to the SMC to discuss the results of the study which are being reported in the International Journal of Epidemiology, as well as issues such as:

• What impact do genetics have on the risk of an individual committing a sexual offence?
• Can this information be used to predict how many men in the UK might be at high risk of sexually offending?
• Should relatives of convicted sexual offenders be offered interventions and treatment if they haven’t offended?
• Should risk assessments of potential offenders include information on possible genetic factors?

Speakers:

Prof Seena Fazel, Professor of Forensic Psychiatry and Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow, University of Oxford

Prof Niklas Långström, Professor of Psychiatric Epidemiology, Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet